


For Them

by Toriel



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Minor Character Death, Parent!Levi, Swearing, and i like modern AU better, less research, sorry the canon divergence just wasn't going to work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 19:23:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toriel/pseuds/Toriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi fucks up.<br/>He helps the wrong people.<br/>He saved their lives and they saved his soul.<br/>And now that he's too human to return to the monster he was, he has no choice but to accept the difficulties they gave him in their death.<br/>And the worst part is, is that he can't let himself give up.<br/>For them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Them

**Author's Note:**

> First fanfiction in a while. I think this is a prologue? We'll how it goes. This fucker took me three hours, and it's not even good. I'm sorry. Feel free to leave. *hands you chocolate on your way out*  
> Lots of swearing on Levi's part, because I'm trying to portray him as I see him (kind of).

Levi was a thug.

  
That was the only way to describe it. The way that his foot smashed into the man’s back, the way that all of their eyes turned towards him, wide in shock and anger, and all he could do was smirk and ball his fists, not even waiting for them to blink away the surprise.

He was a thug. He beat until submission or death. He beat until he was pleased with the mangled mess caused by his hands, the mangled mess begging for forgiveness that he would never give.

Watching their bodies try to crawl away as he smiled hungrily, smashing their skulls and their hope into a slush of blood and bones broken beyond repair.

Minds broken beyond repair.

And he did it all with his fists, cold hearted and cruel. Not because he wanted to, but because he had to.

A thug should only act like one.

A monster should only act like one.

And that was all Levi was. All that he would ever be.

Until he met Petra.  
…

“They won’t be moving for a while.” Levi chuckled darkly as he watched the couple in front of him. They were in one his classes, weren’t they? He had seen them once or twice, laughing like a bunch of idiots with their friends.

He had wondered what got them into that position, surrounded by monsters in a dead end alley with nowhere to go. The girl took a step towards Levi, eyes hard and distrusting. The boy beside her shot his arm out, trying to hold her behind him, as if he were some sort of white knight, and Levi couldn’t help but want to laugh. They had too been no older than sixteen and there they were, trying to protect each other from a monster that had taken down half a dozen men. He had no doubt that they were no match for him, but he didn’t particularly want to try out his theory.

The girl had hissed to the boy, something about being able to hold her own, but the boy ignored her and glared at Levi. “You try to touch either one of us, and I’ll rip your fucking dick off.” Levi laughed, although the threat was nothing to joke about, especially with the menacing look in the boy’s eyes.

“Trust me, I have no intention of touching dirty piss and shits like you.” Levi’s mouth settled and his face relaxed into a neutral grimace, no longer feeling of the thrum of adrenaline in his veins. He didn’t have a need to be there anymore, with the bodies lying scattered around him unmoving and the pair staring at him intently. Figuring that they wouldn’t go out of their way to attack him, Levi turned his back and headed home, his body dirty with filth and sweat and his clothes covered in blood that wasn’t his. He would get odd looks on the way back, sure, but no one would do anything about it.

If Levi had even once liked something about himself, it was the dark glare that his eyes always held. He was not someone to be reckoned with, his eyes said, and the muscled tones of his body agreed.

Levi almost hit from her because of his honed reflexes when she suddenly ran up to him, sweat plastered on her face and her body jittering with nervousness. The suspicious in her eyes seemed to fade away. It wasn’t gone, but at least it wasn’t as strong. Levi had enough enemies as it was, no need to have another reason to watch his back. Not that he would mind having another person to beat the shit out of, but he enjoyed the peace in school, and there was no need to fuck up someone else’s life with two more years left in high school.

But if it was necessary, he would do it.

His eyes glanced over her impatiently as she caught her breath and smiled, pulling her deep orange hair behind her eye. “Thanks, for what you did back there.” Oluo watched her carefully, and her treatment of Levi only seemed to spike his temper further, but he seemed to hold his tongue. Wasn’t he a year older than them? Why the fuck was he in their class?

Levi remained emotionless. “It wasn’t for you, I was cleaning out filth.” The answer seemed to shock her for a second, but her smile only shined brighter at his response.  
“I know. But you didn’t have to do it here, helping us. Thank you.” Levi nodded his head and continued on his way, almost surprised to hear her calling out to him. “My name is Petra! See you tomorrow in class!”

Levi scoffed. So the shithead remembered him after all, huh?

These next few years would be interesting.  
…

Levi heard Petra’s distinct sobbing through the phone, and two years ago he would’ve slammed the phone down and blatantly ignored the phone’s constant ring. But two years were more than enough to learn about the girl, to get used to her friends, to slowly mold his boiling rage and hate into a seemingly uncaring simmer. Her voice hiccupped as she attempted to speak. “L… Levi?”

“Is everything okay?” For a moment, he let go of his cool exterior. What she needed wasn’t a heartless bastard but someone that could show that he cared. And slowly, over time, he had.

“I… I slept with Ol… Oluo a m… month and a half ago, right?” Levi’s eyes narrowed and he could feel his muscles tensing. “I… I think I’m pregnant.” The tears were running harder and faster, and her voice held a panicking lilt to hit as she tried to calm down and failed. “I… I don’t know what to do! We’re barely seniors in high school, I can’t do this, I can’t have a kid when I’m passing calc and reading boring novels and I can’t have a kid Levi, I just can’t, I couldn’t do it properly. I don’t have the time or the money and the world is going to hate me as the slut who couldn’t keep her legs closed! What am I supposed to do!?” The words slurred faster and faster as she spilled all of her regrets onto his lap.

How easy it would be to hang up. How easily he could hate himself just a little more, but not enough for it to matter.

How easy, and yet… so hard, because he was nothing if not loyal to the bonds she had created between them.

“Have you told Oluo?” His voice was calm. She didn’t need someone to worry, she needed someone to care. To support her. The silence mixed with muffled sobs told him the answer before she could speak the truth. “He’s not a flake, Petra. He may be a fucking idiot, but he’s not a flake. You chose him for a reason, and you may have fucked up in the process, but if he doesn’t help you, and we both know he will, then I will personally rip that flaccid dick apart from him because he sure as hell won’t be needing it anymore.” Levi could hear the sobs dying down slowly. “It’ll be okay. We’re both here for you. Who the fuck told you that you couldn’t do this?”  
…

“Fuck what the world thinks.” Her eyes narrowed, and Levi could see that headstrong glare that she had the first day he met her. “I’m going to have this kid, whether the world supports me or not. I’ll carry him on my knees if

I have to, but not for long, because hell freezes over the day that I don’t stand up.”

The four of them walked out of the abortion clinic. Her, Oluo, Levi, and the child she wouldn’t let go of.

She held her arm around her belly, cradling it, with a look of passion so great it seemed the world would’ve stopped just for her.

And if it didn’t, Levi and Oluo would make it.

Levi almost smiled.

God, those fuckers were making him proud.  
…

Petra had more bags beneath her eyes than Levi did, and that was saying something. He scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You need a fucking day off. If he’s old enough to suck on a bottle he’s old enough for me to take care of him.” Levi’s eyes glared at the wall as he ignored her look of adoration. “Fuck off. Go to a bar, get drunk off of your ass, and I’ll take care of this bastard until you’re all rested and vomit free. Take the fucking weekend, I don’t care.”

“Levi…” She smiled softly at him. The worries of the past few months seemed to melt away, and fuck it all if his heart didn’t melt a little at the sight.

“And tell Oluo to shut the fuck up about joining the Survey Corps. Tell him that I’ll keep your bed warm while he’s gone if he goes, that’ll rile him up. God knows you can’t do this alone, no matter how much you need the money. I’m doing well enough in school to get a job. He needs to sit his fucking ass down. The both of you are going to relax until your asses fall off this weekend, you got it?”

Petra’s eyes watered. “Thank you Levi. Thank you so much. I’d tell you that we’d be fine, but you’re so stubborn…. Thank you.” She sniffled, and Levi’s face curled in disgust.

“Get out of here before your disgusting hormones get all over my shit. And you fuckers deserve it.”

She pecked him on the cheek. Levi probably would’ve taken the boy for an entire week, but Petra would’ve gone insane with worry, trusting Levi or not. Not to mention Oluo would try to kick his ass for making her worry, and Levi would let him, pretending that he wouldn’t bother hitting a shitstain like Oluo when in reality, he wouldn’t want to hit a friend.  
Not that he would admit it.

Petra lay the tiny baby in Levi’s arms, kissing it on the nose before doing the same to Levi. He probably would’ve yelled at her about germs, but that smile, that fucking heartwarming smile made the words stutter on his lips.

“You’re a good friend, Levi. I’m glad that I met you. Bye Eren, bye Levi. I love you both! I’ll be back soon, I promise.” She turned and left, her head peeking out to blow them a kiss. Lev grumbled to himself, angry at being coddled. He was eighteen, damn it, she would have to treat him his age!

But Levi enjoyed the attention too much to say anything about it. One day Oluo would explode, he decided, because Petra had pushed her brotherly love far too hard on Levi. He smiled, so glad that he had met the pair. They were a married couple before they had even begun dating, Oluo always going out of line and Petra holding him back from doing something he regretted. She couldn’t stop him from failing a year, although Levi was positive that he did it on purpose, to ensure his ability to protect her.

God they were cheesy, Levi smirked.

“I love you too.” He whispered. Look at what they had turned him into, a thug without a life and parents that disowned him the minute he turned legal, now cradling a fucking baby against his chest and murmuring sweet nothings to him.

They were all alone in this world, but they had each other.

Levi learned that he wanted nothing more.  
…

Petra was always great at keeping promises.

But they become invalid once you’re dead.

“I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

The loving look on her face as she watched Levi nuzzle the baby.

The times before that. When she pulled him to their table, and when he resisted she had simply moved to his. It was a lonely table, but a solid one, and he didn’t need their crummy fingers all over his shit.

He could’ve sworn that Oluo rubbed his oily, pizza sauce covered fingers on the table on purpose, just because Petra had sat next to Levi rather than him.

They chatted, coaxing him slowly into their warm promises of love and happiness. Never a third wheel despite the obvious love Oluo and Petra had for each other. Never alone, even when the room was only filled with those three.

It was always so easy to slip away, but Petra had always kept her fingers steadily on him, guiding him until it was too late to turn back.

She had turned a monster into a human.

And she had turned from a human to a corpse.

It was his fault. Advising for her to go drinking, telling her to go out.

If only he hadn’t been so nice. If only he had told her to simply rest. If only.

So many other possibilities.

So many other ways to die, after living for so much longer.

But he had taken that away from her.  
…

He was to keep the child. God knew that child services were going to breathe down his neck every fucking step of the way, but he was going to teach that fucking child how to take those steps. To take them strongly.

He couldn’t believe that he was their first choice as an emergency contact.

Their first choice as a father.

Levi knew that Oluo would say that he was against it, but he really wasn’t. They sent him a letter, a letter strong enough to make him rub his eyes and make odd noises in his tiny apartment.

_We don’t know when this will reach you. I hope that you get this fifty million years from now, where you’re as short as ever you big dick_

The handwriting changed halfway through the sentence, he could tell that they wrote it together. Levi almost smiled at the insult, but any crack in his emotionless face would send him spiraling into a depression.

_I hope that this finds you well. All jokes aside, you weren’t that bad. Gruff, yeah, but you took care of her. When you get this message I hope you know that I did my fucking best to save her, whatever happened. I may not have been as good as you at anything, but fuck if that changes anything. She’s the best thing that could ever happen in this world. The fuck if I’ll let anything take her away from it._

His body was over hers, they said. Bones completely out of their joints, completely cracked apart, and he still managed to crawl over on his broken body to try to shield her from the world.

The next set of handwriting was different, older. As though they were taking their time piecing the letter together. Petra’s idea, no doubt.

_I didn’t plan on dying, Levi. I know that we have so much at stake right now. As I’m writing this, Oluo is patching you up from another brawl out on the streets. I know you’ve got a good heart. We might die, and when we do I want you to hold that baby like you’ve never hurt a soul in your life, because he deserves a warm loving family and if we can’t provide that for him, you’ll tough it out. Do it for us. I don’t even need to threaten you Levi… you’re our family too._

“I’ll be back soon, I promise.” The words whispered in his head.

Fuck everything.

He slammed his hand on the wooden table, the half of the letter unread but he couldn’t do it anymore. He couldn’t finish reading their last words to him, he didn’t want to admit it.  
The child cried in its cradle and Levi folded the paper, tucking it in a drawer.

He didn’t have time to worry about school or money or anything else other than this child’s well-being.

He would protect it with everything he had.

For them.

If he would ever do anything, it was for them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for making it to the end.  
> *hands you better chocolate than what I gave to those that left*  
> (kidding. I wrote so much I feel nauseous though. Bluh.)  
> Hit me up with critiques because I'd rather get better than have you all suffer sucky-ass chapters.  
> *wipes away my tears and sweat*


End file.
